The invention relates to a flap system for an aircraft high lift system or an engine actuation with a rotary shaft system, one or more drive stations as well as elements for transmitting the drive energy from the rotary shaft system to the one or more drive stations. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for monitoring such flap system.
Aircraft high lift systems adapt the wing profile to the respective flight situation by means of a suitable flap mechanism. What is known are aircraft high lift systems with a central drive unit in the form of a rotary shaft system which is connected with one or more drive stations via branch transmissions. These drive stations each comprise an appropriate drive which converts the rotational energy provided by the rotary shaft system into the appropriate flap kinematics.
Up to now, two individual drives are used per flap. Flaps arranged one beside the other are connected with each other via mechanical coupling points, so-called interconnection struts, in order to prevent skewing of the flap during extension and retraction in the case of the failure of a drive. In the case of the failure of a drive station, the load path extends to the adjacent flap via the interconnection strut.
This mechanical connection between the flaps, however, prevents the implementation of an extended flap functionality, in particular the possibility of an adaptive camber of the wing profile by means of differential flap positioning over the wingspan. For realizing such extension function, the previously provided mechanical coupling path between the flaps must be omitted. By omitting the coupling, however, the redundancy is lost and a novel safety concept is required for protection against structural faults.
An identical or similar flap system is used in the engine actuation of an aircraft engine. By means of the flap kinematics the function of a thrust reversal can be realized.